Not For A Moment
by ttfan111robstar1
Summary: People say Seto Kaiba is emotionless and uncaring, but Mokuba doesn't believe that- not for a moment. A Seto Kaiba character study through Mokuba's eyes. Inspired by the song of the same name by Meredith Andrews.


My brother gets a lot of harsh judgement from the public, and almost everybody he comes in contact with.

They see a man willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead. They see a vicious competitor, a power hungry tycoon, and a man who will do or say anything to stay on top. In short, they see a younger version of my Stepfather. But they are so wrong. My brother is nothing like him. My brother has a heart- he just never lets anyone get close to it. Nobody but me.

I never believed, not for a moment, that Seto would put anything before me. He may have times where he's busy running the company, but that's only because he's keeping the two of us in mind. He's running a company to provide for us, and specifically me. I get the feeling that if he did not have this job that his guardianship of me would be taken. I know he'd fight harder than anyone ever has to get me back if that happened. But it won't because he works as hard as he does. And he absolutely gets obsessed with Duel Monsters and being a champion, but I know that that's for me too. Part of it his competitive nature, but the other part is him wanting to give me a role model and to show me how hard work can pay off. He shows me through all of that just how much you can accomplish no matter where you come from. I know whenever he draws a Blue Eyes he's thinking of me, and the card I made him all those years ago in our Stepfather's house.

Yugi and his gang are pretty much the only ones who have seen his heart, and pretty much all of them, except for Yugi himself, don't take it at face value. They believe the illusion. The face he put on for the rest of the world. Especially Joey Wheeler, who didn't believe the kind moments he shared with me over the rest of it. And to some extent, I can see his reasoning. Those moments did not come often in public, only after a major and traumatizing event. He did not see enough of the side I see every day.

They don't see how Seto tutors me in math, or how he comforts me after a nightmare. They didn't see in Battle City while Seto was researching The Winged Dragon Of Ra and I fell asleep, and he covered me with his favorite jacket. They don't see how he smiles at me after a long trip, or the mornings when Seto would come into my room and rub my back to wake me up. They don't see the way he wraps his arms around me on the mornings when I sneak into his room on his days off and get into his bed. They don't see Seto as human. They see him as a statue- cold, stony, and devoid of emotions other than the one they were carved with. They could not be more wrong.

My brother has emotions. He just doesn't show them often. His expressiveness, which had been quite present when our parents were alive, had dimmed with the orphanage, and thanks to Gozaburo, was now practically nonexistent. Practically being the operative word. He was obsessed with emotional scrupulosity. He believed that showing emotion would cause more harm than good, and so he kept them under lock and key, only ever showing them to me, because I was the only one he trusted. I was the only one who was safe.

I know my brother would never forsake me. He wouldn't leave me when we were kids, and other families at the orphanage wanted him, but he would not leave without me. He would not abandon me for his business, or greed, or even duel monsters. I am more important to him than any of that. Because I am the only family he has left. I am the living reminder that he is not made of stone. I am the reason he is still human, and not like our Stepfather.

I think that if I had not been there during that time with Gozaburo, for whatever reason, my brother might not be alive right now. I think if he had been alone with that man, the only outcome would have been suicide. Seto was a smart kid, and he knew better than anyone that if he were to try and fight Gozaburo, to try and tell someone what happened in that house, he knew it wouldn't have made a difference. Gozaburo had enough money to make those kinds of problems go away, whether by paying them off or having them killed. He would have figured that the only way out was to be with our parents again. It would have likely been a much more extreme version of his reaction after his defeat by Yugi.

I am proud of him. He isn't the same as he was when we were in the orphanage. He isn't a kid anymore, and his metamorphosis may have seemed surprising to everyone else, but not me. I am the only one who has seen exactly what he has been through. He has gone through all of this, and yet he did not completely lose himself. I still see glimmers of the brother I used to play with in our parents home, the one who protected me and taught me games and smiled. They may not come as often as I like, but they do come. That is enough for me. I do everything I can to prove to him that I need him and I love him. I hug him, I smile for him. Because he needs the reminder that there is still joy in the world. He needs the reminder that I am here for him.

I don't believe my brother is emotionless. I don't believe he is heartless, either. Not for a moment.


End file.
